Contents

Development

Hitmaker had tried to develop an on-line version of Crazy Taxi, to be called Crazy Taxi Next exclusively for the Xbox, which, besides multiplayer game modes, would have included night and day cycles, each with a different set of passengers and destinations, while reusing and graphically updating the maps from Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2. Ultimately, both multiplayer and day/night cycles were dropped and work on Crazy Taxi Next was transferred to Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, which included some of the nighttime driving concepts suggested by Next.

Features

Stages are improved graphically and are tightened and updated for full use of the gameplay elements.

Crazy X

Crazy Taxi 3 inherits the tradition of mini-games from the Crazy Taxi series. Crazy X consists of three levels, each testing a different criteria of skills e.g. Steering, use of Crazy Dash, Crazy Drift etc.

By completing all of level 1, maps of the locations are available on the menu which includes all the destinations and short-cuts. Completing level 2 will provide you with three more different types of vehicle to ride on: Stroller, Bike and Carriage.

Background Information

In 2003, High Roller was ported to the arcade via the Xbox-based Chihiro system board. Some versions of this game allow the player to actually win money back from the machine. These versions also include a non-paying version of the game with different difficulty levels.

PC Port

A PC Port of Crazy Taxi 3 came in early 2004 only in Europe[2], featuring higher resolution graphics and steering wheel support[citation needed]. Unfortunately the game suffered frame rate drops as the Xbox version but didn't have a very significant impact on the gameplay itself. Due to poor sales the game was out on the bargain range within a few months of release.[citation needed].

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Crazy Taxi 3 is composed entirely of punk rock music from the bands Bad Religion, Pivit and The Offspring, specifically:

Criticisms

The game received a lukewarm reception, as an above average game on the Xbox, receiving an average 69/100 score from Metacritic.[3] Several of the criticisms were its lack of innovation; Game Revolution stated the game series as "getting old"[citation needed] while this new version "offers little new"[citation needed], while Xbox Nation Magazine, stating "the game plays almost identically to the original"[citation needed] gamer web Xbox, also pointed out "a lack of multiplayer and user soundtracks"[citation needed].